I Know You've Suffered
by TheCrowMaiden
Summary: Age of Ultron spoilers! The Maximoffs have a nightmare that feels too much like a memory and they reach out to Steve and Natasha. A bit of an angst/comfort fic, with some added Steve and Nat friendly bonding. No pairings. I think that the Maximoffs would actually be fond/trusting of Steve since he seemed to be the most sympathetic to their situation and was the first to trust them.


Pietro woke with a start, and he groggily rolled over to look for his sister. Sure enough, Wanda was standing next to his bed, her face wet with tears and her hands clenched in the skirt of her nightgown. He lifted the covers, and she slid in next to him and pressed her face into his chest. He wrapped one arm around her, tilting his head down so he could hear her better.

"So much fear." She whispered brokenly to him as he soothed her, and she wiped her eyes on his tshirt.

She couldn't describe the details to him, but Pietro wasn't concerned much with what the nightmare had been about; his concern was calming Wanda enough so she could sleep.

Gradually she settled as he whispered reassurances to her, and he continued until she dozed off. She slept fitfully though, and Pietro felt himself picking up on her agitation as he fell asleep shortly afterward, still holding her protectively.

And then an explosion rocked the tower, the twins falling out of bed from the force of it. A hole opened in the floor mere feet away and Pietro shoved Wanda under the bed and crawled in after, covering her head with his arms. The two clung to each other as the room shook, and the smell of unnamed things burning stung their noses. The smoke burned their eyes, and Wanda's grip was bruising Pietro's arm. A second impact threw the bed into the air and knocked them into the far wall, and they were gasping for breath when the floor fell out from under them.

Pietro couldn't tell if it was Wanda or himself screaming, and he tore off the covers as he came awake. He should have known that the fear from a nightmare bad enough to make Wanda seek him out, something she hadn't done for weeks, wouldn't be banished so easily.

Wanda was shaking, her sobs raw and hoarse as she gripped his arm. He felt barely better than her, and he lurched to his feet. The nightmare, so much like the memory of when they were ten, made Pietro long for their parents. He couldn't calm Wanda, couldn't calm himself, so he gathered his sister into his arms and ran to find someone who could.

Steve was roughly woken up by Pietro shaking his shoulder and whispering his name incessantly. The bedside light was already on, and he was so startled by the twins haggard appearance he sat up and reached for the handgun he had by his shoes. Steve looked around the room, immediately on high alert for danger.

"What's going on?"

"Nightmare," Pietro gasped, "the tower, the building, there were fires."

The young man paused and looked at Steve with desperation as Wanda continued to cry. "Can we stay here?"

"Uh, sure." Steve replied automatically, and the twins were on his bed in an instant.

Wanda huddled against his back as if to keep him between her and the door, or to keep herself grounded. Pietro was right by her side, and Steve could feel them trembling against him as they quietly wept. Every time he tried to move so he could talk to them they only stuck closer to him, leaving him practically immobilized and at a loss of what to do.

Straining as far as he could without dislodging them again, Steve managed to get his phone off his bedside table and he speed dialled Natasha's number.

"I need backup," he said as soon as she answered, "and I need it now. My room, no hostiles."

To her credit, Natasha arrived in thirty seconds with her belt and holsters strapped on over her tank top and shorts, disregarding his claim of there being no hostiles. She took one look at the twins who had since pulled Steve's blanket around themselves, and went straight back out the door much to Steve's dismay.

But she came back in a few minutes with a tray that had four mugs of tea, and after setting it on the table she sat next to Wanda. Natasha managed to coax the young woman, and by extension her brother, into uncurling so that Steve could turn and face the twins as well. Steve handed Pietro a tissue and encouraged him to breathe slowly while Natasha rubbed Wanda's back and encouraged her to do the same.

It took a quarter of an hour before the twins were coherent, although it was plain to see that they both were badly shaken. They could barely keep their eyes open they were so exhausted from the ordeal, but they were likewise too troubled by what they had experienced to want to try to sleep again so soon. So Steve and Natasha kept them talking about mundane things, focusing on topics that would help the Maximoffs feel safe and at ease.

Eventually the haunted look left the twins' eyes, and after they had each finished their cup of tea and used up Steve's packet of tissues they finally fell asleep. Unfortunately, they fell asleep tangled not only with each other but with the two other Avengers as well. Steve's outstretched arm was trapped behind Pietro's shoulders, and Wanda was still holding tight to Natasha's hand.

Sighing, Steve used his free arm to pass Natasha a mug of now lukewarm tea and then picked up and sipped at his own. Natasha put her mug between her knees when she finished with it, and pulled her phone out of one of the holsters on her hip. Steve's phone lit up a moment later, and he snagged it off the table to read her text.

 _How embarrassed do you think they'll be in the morning?_

 _I'll wager they don't speak to us for a week,_ Steve texted her back, smiling wryly.

Pietro shifted, and Steve grimaced as pins and needles started in his fingers. He tried to shift just the slightest bit, and Natasha gave him a death glare over Wanda's head.

 _Don't you dare wake them up, Rogers._

 _I'm doing my best, but my arm isn't a pillow._

 _It is now. Just be glad it's still attached to your body ;)_

Natasha's expression mimicked the emote she had just sent him, and Steve gave her his best deadpan stare in return. She just smiled, and typed what seemed like a rather long message on her phone. The text Steve got a minute later was shorter than expected, but self explanatory as to why it was.

 _I sent Tony a message that promises something unpleasant if he disturbs us in the morning by so much as sticking his head in the door._

 _I appreciate your thoroughness._

 _Of course you do._

As if to drive her point home, Natasha smirked and pressed something on her phone that made the light dim. The screens of their phones were now the brightest sources of light, and Steve angled it away from the twins.

 _Yes, I do. Hopefully you didn't wake him though._

 _Tony will sleep through almost anything._

A second message popped up before Steve could comment on that, Natasha being several times faster at texting than he would ever be.

 _And on that note I think it's time we took a hint from the kids and got some sleep ourselves Cap._

 _Agreed. Goodnight Natasha. Thanks for the backup._

 _Anytime. Sleep tight._

Natasha handed her empty mug over to Steve, who put it safely out of the way on the table along with the other mugs and his phone. The two older Avengers got comfortable as best they could, Steve on the edge of the bed on his back and Natasha curled up on her side. Wanda shifted in her sleep, smiling and nestling into her brother, and Natasha and Steve shared a protective look.

It didn't matter that Wanda alone could easily disarm either of them or a potential threat, or that Pietro could have taken them both to safety in an instant. Nightmares were something that all of them had in common.

And both Steve and Natasha would have fought any enemy tooth and nail to let the twins sleep peacefully for even a minute longer.


End file.
